River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1887-03-31


ing of two thousand millions of chinch
bugs when il is stated that that mum
Der of them, placed in straight line
head and tail together, would just
about reach from the surface of the
earth to its central point "a distance
of four thousand miles.
| desire here to say that the fall of
1885 and the present winters snow
falling upon an unfroZen ground, indi-
Gates no diminution in bug nuisance
from the worst we ever saw.
Prof. Riley says there are two types
of the bug, the long winged and the
short-winged or wingless. The two
frequently promiscuously occur to.
! gether. Sometimes the lOng.winged
type only occur in particular season;
especially SO in very hot season.
The long-winged variety are the kind
we most see on the wing in early
spring and late in the season. The
spring of 1885 and in the fall of the
same season as late as the month of
| October, numberless Swdrms of this
| variety might be seen any warm day.
| Never before has SO many of the bugs
gone into such comfortable winter
| quarters as now.
Few farmers in this section of the
country need an introduction to this
| bug. The past season all must have
seen him TOR smelt HIM, yet / infer
| but few quite understand their habits
and how migratory they are. Those
who have not seen the ground alive
and red with its young, or the corn
| stalks black with the more matured
| individuals as we saw them in Clifton
the past season, can hardly imagine
how quickly stout corn-stalks will
bow and wilt from the suction of their
congregated beaks, or wheat field in
| two or three days whiten from loss
of life's juices. and the insects march
| ing from field TO field in solid phal-
anX. 1t is no wonder that it seems
| difficult to understand its destructive
powers, or conceive how an insect that
| lives by suction aud has no mandibles,
could destroy plants SO totally. When
field of wheat or barley is Overrun
by chinch bugs man is powerless be-
fore the unsavory hosts, and his only
hope is timely rains.
Hence in wet, cold, moist season,
they are either destroyed or do not
brood as fast, or both conditions may
help to limit their number. Fire and
water will wipe out the pest. The
chinch bug may be reliable Mormon
but not good Baptist. The fellow
cannot stand irrigating. Ice water
and irrigation have been suggested for
| determination. A hail storm is as
| likely to be destructive as the bug, and
IN this country we have no mountain
/ streams to draw supply to irrigate.
The best preventive means can sug
gest at this time, is burning. 1t was,
as heretofore suggested, the original
manner of keeping in check the other
wise vast boards of injurious insects;
and now if all our farmers will only
lay their plans to plow about every
grain-field stubble, and burn at mid
day, this organized persistent burning
of all our stubble fields, in my opinion,
would so lessen the number in most
seasons as to render them compare
lively harmless.
Mr.. Guy, in his very entertaining
paper read at the Institute held here
in December last, says that the prac-
tice of burning straw as well as the
prairie is nearly done away with.
theoretically we conclude he is glad
that the practice has become obsolete.
Yet further on he says, tour land
when first broken up contained plenty
of plant food" And why! because
of the accumulations of ages of vege-
! table products made rich by alkaline
salts, the result of many burnings of
prairie and field
In advocating the burning of straw
and stubble | am well aware that Il is
| forbidden ground. Editors of family
newspapers, and amateur farmers, will
hold up their hands in holy horror at
| the suggestion. The purpose of this
paper is not to discuss the manurial
or straw question; and in passing |
will only say, that for enriching soil /
had much rather have the ashes of
stubble, weeds and debris, burned
carcasses of bugs and insects, than to
| suffer the live presence of the latter;
and that alkali salts are of more value
to a grain raiser than half-rOtted
straw in a dry season.
There are great many proposed
remedies to dispose of, circumvent or
annihilate the chinch rascal. Kerosene
emnlsiOns, sailing, spreading tar up
on boards placed upon edge all around
the field. ditching to prevent emigra-
ton, are about as effective and i'm
practihle as was the mothers effort to
kill the nits upon her boys head by
the application of plaster on his toe.
There are few, if any, natural enc
mics to destroy the bug; no parasite,
as is the fact with the Hessian fly and
mountain locust. The fly and locust
have enemies which soon appear, two
or more to one. to destroy them. We
can expect no friendly help from ma.
ture; of changing seasons we have no
assurance.
Hemp is said to be as obnoxious to
chinch bugs as rope to felon. Some
of our present grain raisers might with
profit turn their attention to hemp
culture. Cane raising will not help
the matter. 1t is the raising and cul-
tivatlon of the plant upon farms de-
sire to recommend; not to encourage
the effort to hang the miscreant, by no
means. am told that a citizen of
} Clifton caught full grown fellow
and put him into a bottle, corked 1t
tight and hung the bottle upon the
limb of tree. About twelvemOnth
from the date of the hanging he be-
J thought to examine the bottle and the
victim. He pulled the cork and out
came the bug as fresh and lively as
J spring lamb.
In order to stay the multiplication
) of this bug have to suggest that no
corn fodder be plOughed under in the
| fall. Better feed the fodder to the
stock although it may be badly infest-
ed with the bug, than send him under
{ the furrow with a corn-husk bed "a most
| excellent winter protection and life
: preseryer; that corn stalks, old boards,
! weeds. and all such rubbish be burned.
j Under such rubbish the bug is sure to
I winter. That the spring wheat we
SOW shall be on well enriched ground,
sown as early as possible and thickly
and rolled hard if not too wet. 1T wet
A., there is no necessity Of rolling, / am
also satisfied that salt and lime is in a
t measure a great help and effective aid
I in spring wheat culture, in so far as its
+ application will stimulate a more Wig
P OrOus growth. The Tanker and strong
? er the growth of the grain of course
] the greater is the supply of sap. The
. result of my Investigation into future
0 radiance of the chlneh bug has in
? clined me to fully endorse the cOnclu
e sions some time since arrived at by
/, Prof. Riley, to wit; abstaining from
A the cultivation of the grains upon